They had done an excellent job of distracting Carlos and Antonio because before I knew what was happening, the front door had been kicked in and the living room was filled with police. The officers were yelling at everyone.
I looked over and saw Del and Rose hiding together on the floor. Carlos and Antonio seemed reluctant to follow the officers’ orders, but finally obliged because the officers had their guns drawn.
If Delilah and Rose hadn’t been on the floor, they certainly would have been used as human shields by Carlos and Antonio. But they were out of reach and the men had no choice except to put their hands up. Well, they had a choice: they could have drawn their guns and gotten their butts shot by the police officers, but that seemed like a bad idea, even for a couple of meatheads.
The whole scene was rather anti-climactic as the police put cuffs on the two men and hauled them out to their cruisers. Outside, we saw Billy, Dick, and Josh all waiting as the girls and I walked out to great them.
“Sorry for punching you,” Rose said to Delilah.
“No, it was great. Definitely believable.”
“You know, you two had me scared to death,” I told them as we walked toward the guys.
“You should have seen your face when we were rolling around on the ground. Man, that was funny. Did you see them?” Delilah asked.
“Oh, so predictable. They were all standing around with their tongues out like we were going to strip naked or something like that.”
“Can’t leave men to do a woman’s job,” Delilah laughed as the two of them hugged. “It was nice meeting you. Maybe we could hang out sometime when we aren’t punching each other in the face.”
“I don’t know how Brandon would feel about that.”
“Hey, I’m all for you two being friends. And, you can fight naked anytime you want,” I joked.
“What? Wait, was there naked girl fighting and I missed it?” Josh joined in the conversation.
“No, Josh, but I think you could convince Mattie to have a naked fight with you if you’re nice to her,” Delilah teased.
“Mr. Baker, Billy here says you have some evidence about this case? I’m Officer Michaels.”
“Yes, Sir. I’ve got this all recorded right here,” I said as I unbuttoned my shirt and exposed the wire that was taped to my chest. “It might take me a minute to get it off….”
“Oh, I’ve got it,” Rose said as she leaned over and ripped the wire right off my chest.
“Hell! Shit! Damn it!” I screamed.
The pain shot through my body as about half of the hair from my chest was pulled off with the tape from the wire. I saw the smile of contentmen
t on Rose’s face, though, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She had probably been waiting a really long time to cause me to scream like that.
“Just trying to make things go a little more quickly,” she smiled. “You know you deserved that, right?”
“Yep,” I said through the pain.
“Thank you, though,” she said as she hugged me. “I’m very grateful we found out who that guy was before I married him. I know things didn’t go all that great between us, but we will always be friends.”
“Rose, I’m sorry for how things ended. I truly am, and I wish it could have been different.”
“I think things turned out all right. Thanks again.”
“So are we friends now?” I asked.
“Always.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Delilah
“That looked like it hurt really bad,” I said to Brandon as we stood outside and wrapped up everything the police needed from us.